“Today, in our field, there is so much talent and recognition that we are reaching a saturation point. An artist should no longer strive only for breathtaking craftsmanship; he should, instead, try to help us live better, either by dressing the wounds that are constantly being opened by society, or by offering solutions to get us out of the mess we’re in…But it’s going to be difficult and we have a lot of work to do.” - Jean 'Moebius' Giraud

Thursday, March 31, 2011

This is a pre-show commission for the upcoming convention in San Francisco, WONDERCON. If you are in the area, or if you are in attendance, please drop by Booth 1338-1340. It would be great to meet fans in the bay area.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you at the show. As for me, I still have a seven hour drive to look forward to.

I'm back from Chicago and C2E2 convention. I had loads of fun, met many of my talented and revered contemporaries, and tried to buy as much as their works as my small piece of luggage could hold for the trip back home. Also, maybe because of the fatigue, I feel like I'm drunk. At least I don't feel sick as a dog as I was when I got back from Emerald City Comic Con. Yikes.

Let me say 'Thank you!' to all the people who dropped by the table. The experience was even better than last year, and with MATTEO SCALERA sitting with me, I couldn't have enjoyed the show more. Also, Matteo introduced me to his friend ALESSANDRO VITTI. I'm saying this as seriously as I possibly can - there is something in the water over there in Italy that's making these guys draw like monsters. After seeing Alessandro's originals, I was immediately impressed with his output quality and the amount of issues he's done in ONE year working for the big companies. I gained respect for him on many levels - he's a funny guy, he's a disciplined illustrator and he's a giving individual. So between me, him and Matteo, we had a great time talking about art, technique, design, family, words/phrases I should learn before I visit there again - the entire gamut. Like I said, I had a very enjoyable weekend. It's also safe to say that these boys know how to drink. And fart.

Have a great week.

PS - In case you're wondering why there's been a lot of marker rendering in my recent commission work (*Note: these marker renderings are not standard operating procedure for me. So please, future commission peeps - don't get used to nor expect it. Thank you), it was simply to explore and see for myself what the big deal is all about whenever I see other commissions elsewhere that are done in the same fashion. My conclusion is that, if you'll pardon the analogy, you can cover a cake with the best icing in the world but if you've baked it using 'poop' as a key ingredient, all you'll have in the end is Poop Cake...with icing.

On Wednesday, the day before my flight out to Seattle, aggressive influenza hit me to the point where I thought I was going to die. So, as per the advice given to me by the girlfriend, I bundled up for the night and stayed in bed until I saw Thursday's sunrise.

Feeling good enough to travel and the effects of the flu having seemingly subsided, I left for LAX, got on the plane to SEA/TAC, met up with my friend Jason Schachter, and caught the ride from the airport to the hotel.

Then, like a great white shark movie sequel, the flu came back - with a vengeance.

By the time Thursday night rolled around, I was in so much pain and discomfort, I was actually yelling out, "I'm going to die," in the hotel room. I'm sure illustrator supreme JEFF WAMESTER and Italian artist phenom MATTEO SCALERA who joined us for the trip had a good chuckle as they watched me running from death's scythe but I have a feeling that the severity of my health dawned on them when I started to uncontrollably shake in bed; flu shivers, man - they're the worst.

Anyway, I had three days of convention to look forward to and considering that the kind coordinators and event planners of ECCC brought me out to their show free of charge, flu or no flu, I wasn't about to let any of them down. Jason, doing his part, was industrious enough to McGuyver together an IV filled with a Theraflu, DayQuil, and Gatorade cocktail. He stuck the thing into my arm, let me sleep for 12 hours straight, then we went to work.

The images you see above are a handful of examples of what came from my Flu vs. Modern Medicine induced haze.